"Straw Dogs" and "Logan's Run" Writer David Zelag Goodman Dead at 81

David Zelag Goodman (pictured, right), an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who teamed with Sam Peckinpah on the original "Straw Dogs," died Monday in Oakland, California after battling a brain disorder. He was 81.

According to his daughter, Goodman died at an assisted-living facility of progressive supranuclear palsy.

Goodman shared an Oscar nomination with Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor for co-writing the screenplay for "Lovers and Other Strangers," a 1970 comedy based on the couple's play. His other credits include "Monte Walsh" (1970), a western starring Lee Marvin; "Farewell, My Lovely" (1975), an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel starring Robert Mitchum; Faye Dunaway thriller "Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978); and the sci-fi classic "Logan's Run" (1976).

He also wrote episodes of TV's "The Untouchables" in the early 1960s and penned the 1979 miniseries "Freedom Road" starring Kris Kristofferson and Muhammad Ali, in which the boxer played an ex-slave in 1870s Virginia who gets elected to the Senate.

What an amazing body of work. So many great stories springing from his mind. Just too bad that we live in a world where human beings that can write such beautiful things that can capture generations after generations of people's attention, and most people never paused for a second to think about who initially set down a turned that idea into reality.

Cheers David Zelag Goodman! May you rest in an afterlife full of souls that value your rare talent and ability.